EFFECTS OF EXTRA-CURICULUM ACTIVITIESE (ECA) ON LANGUAGE
LEARNING AND THEIR APPLICATION INTO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING
ENGLISH AT HANU
I. Introduction
Interaction plays an important role in the language teaching and learning. Two
main kinds of interaction which are widely used in language teaching and learning
are inside and outside classroom interactions. The inside-classroom interactions
reflect the common way we teach English in Vietnam in general and at HANU in
particular. While the latter, the outside classroom interactions, do not seem to
receive enough attention from both teachers and students at HANU. Through our
teaching experiences and classroom observations at KCC, the ideas on this issue
pave the way to our presentation today: Outside-classroom interactions – their
influences on English language learning and the application of these
activities in the English teaching reality at HANU.
II.
Reflection
Through classroom observations, interviews with ESOL professors, tutors, and
students, especially getting actually involved in several extra curriculum activities
at KCC, we have come to the conclusion that outside-classroom interactions act
as a beneficial tool to English language learning.
Typical kinds of extra curriculum activities we experienced such as outdoor
activities (field trips, excursions, study tours), cultural exchange events (quiz
shows), and tutorials organized every week appeared to be of a great help to the
development of students’ language competence. They brought numerous benefits
to the students as they provided them with a good environment to motivate
learning, enrich and consolidate their academic knowledge which they had learned
in the classroom (e.g.: giving them chances to practice functional language), and
broaden
students’ cultural background knowledge as well. Besides, these
activities also helped to develop comprehensive relationship between teachers
and students and among students, promote mutual help, team work, improve
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daily-life conversation and communicative skills. Especially, ECA encouraged the
students build up their self-confidence and self-esteem, improved their social skills
such as negotiation, discussion and communication.
III. How ECA can be applied into English teaching and learning at HANU
Realizing the strong impacts of ECA in the language learning, we suggest these
activities be applied in the English department’s teaching and learning
environment. First, we can organize and take the students on field trips,
excursions, and picnics. We also can encourage able students, including top-rank
undergraduates, graduates, master students, and teachers to work as volunteer
tutors. Besides, we can encourage teachers in charge of the class to offer contacthours to the class members every week: in the forms of face-to-face, forum, and
web page. Finally, we can motivate more students to do group projects in English
for the sake of the community.
IV. Adaptation
1. Tutorial: Have students of higher level help those of lower level with English
learning problems.
What to tutor: Study skills, tips on examination taking, time management in
learning, library searching, Internet searching, learning experience sharing, etc.
How to tutor:

Provide students with training about tutoring

Lower-leveled learners post their problems on shared email address

Tutoring students check mail to see if any of them can answer the problem.
If yes, reply to arrange time for face-to-face meeting or emailing to provide
tutoring
Procedure: Seven students from A6-04 (at the upper-intermediate level) working
as tutors helped 14 adult learners (at the pre-intermediate level) from VINA Coal
class. At the beginning of the course, every tutor worked with two students for
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about 30 minutes to 2 hours every fortnight and then every weekend. The tutors
listened to the students’ learning problems and questions, discussed speaking
topics of the weeks and shared tips, know-how and experiences in studying
English. A special thing is that all of these activities were done in English. Also, the
teacher changed tutors and learners each time to make students more eager to
speak and acquainted to different English voices.
Benefits: After the English course, both tutors and learners gained a lot of
benefits. For the tutors, they acquired better English speaking skills with great
fluency, reasonable accuracy, quicker reaction and thinking in English and natural
use of colloquial responses and exclamations in conversations. Furthermore, they
could enrich their academic knowledge because the learners sometimes asked
very-difficult-to-answer questions that they had to search more appropriate
information to meet the learners’ requirements. Last but not least, they did develop
their tutoring method since they had to carefully prepare for the tutorials and be
more patient. For the learners, significant improvements could be seen in both
speaking and listening abilities. They also enjoyed encouraging progress in writing
and grammar because they could ask the tutors different questions on any
English-relating issue and usually received adequate and detailed explanation.
These activities also helped the students successfully write on the weeks’ topics.
Problems: The major limitation that the tutors had was their limited English ability
and lack of teaching and tutoring experience. More than once they could not give
immediate answers to the students and had to ask for help from teachers. In
addition, time for tutoring in classroom was too short that the learners had to ask
for extra time and the tutors had to meet the learners more often and email the
results to the teacher.
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2. Out-door activities
Types of activities: field trips, excursions, short study tours
How to organize?

Provide students with the plan of the trip, including goal, duration, time
allotment of each activity, as well as procedure)

Guide all people on a tour

Monitor the learners' process in all the activities
Procedure: The study tour to the Temple of Literature in November last year
involved twenty students from class 6A05 in Hanoi University. Firstly, the plans
were given for each member to know what should be done. The rule was that all of
the students had to speak in English. Then, five groups divided by the teacher had
to go around the Temple of Literature to read the information in the stone steles,
stone turtles to find the answers for twenty questions in the plan. After about one
hour and a half, everyone gathered to discuss and check the right answers. When
answering the questions, the teacher explained more about the history, functions
and architecture of the Temple of Literature. Finally, all of the students had free
time to open the conversation with English-speaking tourists. Communicating with
them and providing them some basic information about the Temple of Literature
really helped students practice their speaking skill.
Benefits: The first benefit is that the students can improve a lot not only their
background knowledge but also study skills. Before this trip, for example, the
students had to prepare a lot by searching information about Temple of Literature.
In fact, this information contributed their basically cultural knowledge. Besides, the
vocabulary, speaking skill and teamwork skills also were developed. The second
benefit is that it is the opportunity to many students to be away from the walls,
roves of the class or the seriously strict study environment there. Moreover, it
gives the students the chance to be more independent, more confident in
communicating with others, especially with foreigners. Therefore, this trip was so
great, comfortable and all of the students really enjoyed it.
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Limitations: bad weather with difficulty in transportation may make the plan off, or
just only a few students are chosen to participate in the activity.
3. Quiz show
Focus: on cultural events such as Christmas, Easter, New Year, etc.
Procedure: The teacher first gathered the students and assigned each student a
specific task to prepare for the Christmas party as well as to read and search for
available information around the topic given in advance. The party then was
carried out with many interesting activities such as singing, dancing, acting,
especially the quiz games on the Christmas topic.
Benefits: students gained a lot of background knowledge about the spirit of
Christmas day through activities such as searching information and preparing for
and taking part in the party. I t is a very effective way to learn other cultures,
customs and traditions. It is also a creative way to involve students in participating
in all kinds of language activities. The Quiz game made the party’s atmosphere so
warm and friendly, focusing on the theme of Christmas. More interestingly, there
seems no gap existing among students and students or between students and
teacher.
Problems: Need a lot of time and effort to prepare for the party.
V. Conclusion
The above are some of what we had learnt from the three-week course in Hawaii
last summer and what we have actually tried to apply in our teaching in the English
department for the last academic year. We would, therefore, welcome any further
suggestions and/or opinions concerning those from the colleagues in order to
improve the teaching and learning English at Hanoi University.
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